Foundations of an Empire

Enslaved And Enjoying It

2010-10-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

It’s funny, just when I was going through my library of what game to replay or pickup, thinking there’s nothing on the horizon, I stumbled across this trailer for Enslaved.

I’m not sure about you but the trailer left me yearning for more. The reinterpretation of the classic novel Journey to the West, amazing visuals, mech enemies, and developers blurring the line between movies and games, hooked me. They might as well have been quoting lyrics from DMX.
Enslaved came out while I was knee deep in getting the latest DLC Undead Nightmare for Red Dead Redemption ready to be shipped. It was pitched to me as a poor man’s Uncharted 2, with a touch of Batman Arkham Asylum combat. With that said, I was chasing it like it was the Holy Grail. Even with a pressing deadline at work, that same night I stood eagerly waiting in line for my copy and rushed home to my Xbox. I quickly grasped why Enslaved had been compared to Uncharted 2 when the character you play, Monkey gets blown up, knocked down, and spit out simply by walking through a level. With that said and my completion of Enslaved this week. Here are my takeaways:

Controls were responsive, which is a make or break for platform games.
Having a female companion in the game, named Trip, whom you must protect, was not as annoying as I expected. The storyline pulls you in and you find yourself actually giving a damn about her safety.
The captivating scenic atmosphere is like playing a game taken straight of the movie, What Dreams May Come starring Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr. Games made with Unreal Engine continue to look more and more spectacular. (Ex: Batman Arkham Asylum, Gears of War 2 and Mass Effects 2)
In a platformer, games that mainly involve jumping, running and climbing everywhere must provide collectables of some sort. Players need temptation, which requires risk to get, some shiny incentive to guide them along and Enslaved does just that. Keeping them right along the main path and always within site and always rewarding the vigilant gamer. Opposed to other games that place them in some obscure hidden area that offers nothing but killing time and taking the player out of the excitement, leading him away from the main path and mission.
During combat, when delivering the finishing blow to the last enemy standing in your way the camera will randomly zoom in for a close up of Monkey, whose “Let’s do this!” demeanor looks like a clip straight out of Bloodsport. I couldn’t find a worthy screenshot so here's a clip of Van Damme in Bloodsport. You laugh but you'll notice the similarity when you see it in game.

There are rough animation blends that take away from the experience at the cost of keeping the player locked from running over a cliff and killing himself, which again I respect as a design decision where reloads make you stand through cutscenes and checkpoints are spread pretty far apart.
The entire time I hated that I couldn’t pause or skip cutscenes, you know when retrying, but I understand lots of developers use cutscenes to mask loads, especially in Unreal. However, since the story was one of the 3 pillars for Ninja Theory’s product, I can respect the refusal to let you skip or interrupt it. Besides if the wifey calls and you really need to pause, you can just tap the Xbox Guide Button and not miss a beat. :)
I felt like their use contexts, prompts across the screen when the game wants you to press a button, clashed with the presentation of the rest of the game.

(taken with my iPhone off of my LCD)

The game paces you very well and never overwhelms you. I’d rec this game to anyone who likes platformers such as Prince of Persia or Uncharted 2. If you like a good post-apocalyptic story with some good character development, with very handheld forgiving gameplay, and some of the best vistas Unreal has ever rendered, let Trip Enslave you for a bit, I bet you’ll find a gem here. 8/10
Metacritic Rating
-Kingpin Out

Pre – Game Developers Conference 2009

2009-03-24T15:35:00.001-07:00

I’ve got the “day before ” jitters. I’m currently busy working on business cards, printing out resumes, and trying to get some portfolio stuff ready. I wasn’t expecting to demo older projects, but it can only help.

I’ve decided to make this page my point of contact by adding banner links to my resume and my LinkedIn profile. I did it this way because I put more time into this space anyway, and it needs way less maintenance.

I can’t wait to go back, my first GDC was back in 2006 when I was still a student and didn’t know anybody. That was also the year that Shadow of the Colossus and Guitar Hero swept the GDC awards.

Now I’ve got peeps all over, and can’t wait to reconnect with all of ya. And I can’t wait to see the winners in some pretty tight competition with the likes of Braid, Little Big Planet, MGS4, GTAIV, Patapon, God Of War: Chains of Olympus, Gears of War 2, Castle Crashers, Spore, Left 4 Dead, and so many more. I love this industry!

iPhone + App Store = The KiNg

2009-02-06T10:02:00.001-08:00

Interesting article, forwarded to me by programmer who I respect a lot, which discusses iPhone pricing plans and why everything that was .99 will be raised to 9.99.

I love and adore my iPhone, and can never picture living w/o it.

I will hopefully one day invest in a Mac or get hired to work on an iPhone app/game, so from a developer side I can understand the almighty $$$.

But its the same issue with MP3s, we’ve been spoiled, and if we’ve been paying .99 for a song/ or an app, it’ll be WW3 the day we have to pay double, let alone 10x as much.

O my heart is so torn :(

Entertainment Software Day in Texas

2009-02-04T23:08:00.001-08:00

My Tuesday flew by. A good part of the day went by reliving some fond Halo 3 war stories. And it ended with the weekly ex-Midway employees poker night. Well I just now come to find out that I should’ve been celebrating Entertainment Software Day.

That’s right, according to this article over at Gameindustry.biz February 3 is now officially dedicated to our industry in the lovely state of Texas !

Hopefully that helps open up some opportunity for us out of work developers.

Phony PiS3

2008-11-26T20:25:00.000-08:00

I grabbed this from the official sony site, when trying to actually convince myself that I needed a PS3 and that Black Friday would be the day for me to invest in the Blu-Ray player/PS2 w/ HDMI

"Backwards Compatibility
Due to the availability of an extensive (o really?) line-up of PS3™ system titles, the 160GB PS3™ system is not backwards compatible with PlayStation®2 system titles, but does maintain backwards compatibility for some original PlayStation® titles."

I really honestly think Sony doesn't care about making money anymore.

The Most Long Awaited Remix since Diddy Invented It

2008-11-26T08:52:00.000-08:00

Top of the morning ladies & gentleman. While getting up @ the crack of dawn, 7:20 AM to be more specific, is usually a crime in my book, today the pain was washed away by the wonderful folks over at Capcom & Backbone Entertainment who finally released the HD Remix of one of the most well known fighting games of all time.

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo! The price of admission : 1200 Microsoft Points ~ $15 (I still don't understand why they don't have a better system)

So for those not in the know, its the old classic fighter we all know and love, so as not to muck anything up with something that wasn't broken, with a Hi-Def 1080p (p for pretty ) face lift. So needless to say the game is beautiful, and tight.

Here's a link (www.sirlin.net) to the main designer, David Sirlin, who "rebalanced " the game. He's got some game design knowledge that's always intriguing to me, and should be worth a gander if you're a SF fan.

What I wasn't sure about was the online network play. Previous streetfighters, and quite frankly all fighting games just cannot be played competitively online due to lag. It's critical in fighting games where input comes down to a frame of difference.

After going 5-6 online with my boy M. Bison I've got to say it's the best fighter I've played online yet. Thank you mighty Capcom Gods. Now when is Streetfighter 4 coming to the home consoles hmmmm??

And to answer your question, challengers ARE WANTED & WELCOME. You see the gamertag in top right. Don't be shy :)

Make sure to come prepared.

If you're stuck at work or just away from your xbox/ps3 and can't wait for a fix, here's something to increase the itch :)

Kingpins' Blog Version 2.0

2008-11-25T14:00:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to do this for the longest, just feared that my Myspace readers would get lost in the transition over to another simpler site where I can just blog, and post up whatever peeks my interests more frequently.

To inaugurate my blog check out this video entitled What Really Happened to Abe Lincoln, that my roomates and I of 7104 just can't stop passing it around like Small Pox: